How We Cut 10+ Hours of Manual Work a Week with an Automated Creative Tagging System
An internal automation initiative that saved time, improved data accuracy, and transformed our creative content pipeline.
Project Overview
As our creative team scaled up production, keeping content organized became a growing challenge. Tagging assets manually was eating up valuable hours each week—and human error was starting to creep in. We needed a better way to manage content without burning out our team or risking mistakes in client delivery.
The Challenge
Our manual tagging process wasn’t just tedious—it was becoming a bottleneck. With hundreds of assets moving between internal teams and client-facing platforms, even a small error in labeling or categorization could cause delays or confusion. As volumes grew, the process simply couldn't keep up.
The Solution
I led the development of an automated tagging tool that integrated Google Sheets, BigQuery, and Google AppScript. It dynamically generated accurate tags based on pre-set criteria and routed the results directly into the correct sheets for client use. This let the team move from hands-on data wrangling to hands-off, real-time tagging.
Process
Define Criteria
We collaborated with the creative and account teams to identify tagging standards and key metadata points.
Integrate Tools
We set up connections between Google Sheets and BigQuery to enable scalable data handling.
Automate the Workflow
Using AppScript, we built a system to automatically populate and update tags with no manual input required.
Result
The results were immediate: we cut manual tagging time by over 60%, saving more than 10 hours per week across the team. Just as importantly, data accuracy significantly improved—reducing friction between teams and freeing up bandwidth for more strategic work.
- Saved 10+ hours per week in manual work
- Increased data accuracy by 60%
- Enabled automated processes from end-to-end
Team Feedback
“This tool changed the way we work. We no longer dread the tagging process—and we trust the results every time.”